Top Designer Marc Bouwer Urges Aussie PM to Stop Sheep Abuse, Cuts Australian Wool From Fashions

On behalf of PETA, top American fashion designer Marc Bouwer has fired off a letter to Australian Prime Minister John Howard urging him to stop two of the Australian wool industry's abusive practices—cutting huge chunks of skin and flesh from the backsides of sheep and exporting millions of animals to the Middle East, where they are cruelly slaughtered in ways that would be illegal in Australia.

In the letter, Bouwer—whose designs regularly appear on some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Mariah Carey, Julianne Moore, and Angelina Jolie—informs Howard that he will no longer use Australian wool in his designs.

"I recently learned from my friends at PETA how sheep are treated in Australia and am so appalled that I will be cutting all Australian wool from my future collections," writes Bouwer. "Your government's failure to take steps toward enforcing an end to these crude practices reflects poorly on Australia's standing as a wool supplier in the global fashion marketplace."

In Australia, where more than a quarter of the world's wool comes from, farmers use tools similar to gardening shears to cut huge chunks of skin and flesh from lambs' backsides—without giving them any painkillers—in a crude mutilation called mulesing. And each year, millions of Australian sheep who no longer produce enough wool are crowded on export ships and sent to the Middle East, where they are cruelly slaughtered. Sheep who survive the terrifying voyage are dragged off trucks by their ears and legs, tied up, and beaten, and they have their throats slit while they are still conscious.

A growing number of prestigious retailers and top fashion designers—including Abercrombie & Fitch, Limited Brands, and Timberland—have pledged not to use cruelly obtained Australian wool.

Read Marc Bouwer's letter to Prime Minister Howard.

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